Category Archive for: In the News

By Katherine Poythress Denise Gitsham and Sheena Tahilramani help companies develop their brand, their marketing and their message for a living, but only recently did the partners at 7 Second Strategies realize the importance of putting the same amount of energy into their own brand. They launched 7 Second Strategies in late 2012, and the…

Twenty-nine local female business owners graduated from Goldman Sach’s 10,000 Small Businesses program Saturday thanks to a collaboration with the Tory Burch Foundation. Now in its third year, the Goldman Sachs 10KSB Southern California regional program is hosted by Long Beach City College and offers short programs where budding entrepeneurs can learn skills–like accounting, human…

By Shane Goldmacher, National Journal Multimillionaire John Jordan is one of a growing number of donors taking matters into their own hands. HEALDSBURG, Calif.—It’s a Monday afternoon in mid-March, and Republican multimillionaire John Jordan is preparing to host House Speaker John Boehner for dinner the following Saturday—not that he sounds particularly excited about it. “I…

BY MARILYN KALFUS / STAFF WRITER Creating luxe homes on speculation in hot neighborhoods is gaining steam – and private equity funding helps When Brian Sperry came across a two-story, waterfront home at the northern tip of Linda Isle with an expansive view of Newport Harbor last year, the real estate developer knew it presented…

By Jonathan Horn 6 a.m. May 3, 2014 With home values recovering from the Great Recession and the fix-and-flip market drying up, what’s a real-estate investor to do? In Southern California, American Coastal Properties is going for the high end. Instead of focusing on buying bank-owned homes from auction, fixing them and selling them for…

By Steven Cox, Founder and CEO of TakeLessons.com Through all the ups and downs of building TakeLessons over the past eight years, I can say with certainty that San Diego’s ecosystem for tech startups is better now than I’ve ever seen it. That said, we have reached a crucial juncture. Our entrepreneurial community can either…

By Gabrielle Karol, FOXBusiness A new hardware accelerator is looking to combine San Diego’s tech culture with Tijuana, Mexico’s manufacturing skills. HardTech Labs this week announced its “Class Zero,” featuring four startups, three based in San Diego and one in Tijuana. Owaves aims to produce health-related wearable devices; CleverPet is working on learning consoles for…

By Steven Cox CEO and Founder, TakeLessons.com Everyone has moments of doubt. But the good news is, there can actually be healthy. Here’s how to figure out when to listen to that annoying voice in your head. Doubt–at one point or another, every entrepreneur has experienced the sinking feeling that his or her best work…

by Bruce V. Bigelow HardTech Labs, a San Diego accelerator program that gives startups access to low-cost manufacturing in Tijuana, has selected four companies to serve as a beta class. The idea is to help the co-founders and mentors identify the skills that are most important to entrepreneurs and to iron out problems. The cross-border…

The recently built Indian Wells Tennis Garden has opened the eyes of tennis fans and top pro players around the world. George Chamberlin interviews Jody Watkins, the CEO of San Diego based Watkins Landmark Construction, to find out more about the state of the art facility. Watkins Landmark Construction has a solid history of building…